Strategies and Tactics
We need more R.U.S.E. players, join us :). A R.U.S.E. player might employ a wide variety of tactics in order to achieve victory. While the possible tactics available to the player are innumerable, here is a partial list of the more popular tactics that can be found in R.U.S.E. As much detail as possible has been given to help a player make more well-informed decisions. Strategies and Tactics Concentration of force This involves using a large number of units against a small number of units in order to inflict more casualties on the enemy then you take yourself. For example if you have 8 units and the enemy has 4 then (assume units fire once per 5 seconds and do 50% damage) the enemy is instantly destroyed while you will lose 2 units at most, this means that you can systematically reduce the enemy forces by have a few large armies over lots of small armies.See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_concentration for a more detailed explanation. This idea is introduced (somewhat simply) in the second mission where you must destroy the enemy infantry before they can group up and destroy you. Ambush Hiding infantry, armored recon, or AA/AT positions in forests, swamps and/or cities to gain an attack advantage over the enemy. It is important to utilize this ability, and scout for it using recon units, no matter what other strategy a player might employ. However, this tactic can be useless if the enemy is using recon units. The ambush tactic is to produce light units and move them to woods, waiting for approaching enemies to come by and ambush them, also, this tactic is known as 'Guerrilla Tactic'. Do not give any sign of your presence in a territory but instead make the enemy believe that you do not operate in that area, after all, he may try to attack your main force via the route you are holding, resulting in him passing through that territory and getting ambushed. After a successful ambush, always move your forces or the enemy could overwhelm the position you're troops are hiding. Always keep a ground recon unit hidden in the area because it'll detect any unit. To counter the ambush tactic, just watch very carefully enemy movements and always send recon with your troops. Bum Rush Basically, sending in a army early in the game to either; *A) Eliminate an opponent early *B ) Cripple an opponent by destroying major buildings such as their Headquarters A bum rush is made by the cheapest units available. For example, the Italian Carro M13 and M15 tanks are just $15. As well as using cheap units, spam armor and infantry at the first stages of the game. Sometimes Bum Rushing is confused with Spamming (below). While Bum Rushing can be Spamming, a Bum Rush is used with cheap units, and the units used are not necessarily in large amounts, as opposed to Spamming, where you mass-produce any kind of unit. Turtling Used to create an near unbeatable base so you can continue productions of units unharmed without trouble. France, the United States and Germany are the best countries to use when employing this tactic. This tactic is to deploy several defenses around your HQ, and destroy every enemy when it comes by. So, destroying units and supplies, after the enemy is almost destroyed, produce units and outnumber, outgun and overwhelm every enemy unit on the battlefield. A better strategy is to base your defenses around securing supplies and choke points, this way you can install strong defenses that cannot be blitzkrieged properly. If turtling is done in a small area than you will have very limited access to supplies and the enemy will be able to easily target artillery on you units as well as bringing a much larger force onto you. Creeping Barrage Normally used to counter Turtling by slowly managing artillery to move up whilst being escorted by an array of anti-tank, anti-infantry and anti-aircraft units. Creeping Barrage is always used to destroy enemies using the Turtling in-game-tactic, by destroying the defenses, and once the area around the HQ is clear, launch a main attack. The best nations using this tactics are Italy, France, Germany and United States. Blitzkrieg Despite popular opinion blitzkrieg is not a pure rush, it works by using combined arms and concentration of force in order to force a breakthrough of the enemy line and the exploitation of this. To perform a blitzkrieg focus assault units on a small area targeting a weak spot in the enemies defenses so that you can quickly destroy them with minimal casualties. Then move your units through here and subsequently attack other units from unfavorable angles (ie sending units to attack defensive positions through forests or towns in order to prevent them from firing on you before you can attack them). Spamming Over using a specific unit (normally cheap), and sending them in to hopefully obliterate anything in their way. Normally used in conjunction with Bum Rushing. This is often used to create a massive army of light, cheap and fast units, and launch them to the attack, but, by the way, the enemy can offer resistance, putting heavier, more expensive and more effective units, but in much less numbers, the lighter side will often loss a lot of units, but, can be easy to produce again. Infantry can sometimes be used for this in towns as their low cost means that kill loss ratios (enemy units killed to your units lost ratio) can be very low while still costing the enemy a lot more than it costs you. This is because an infantry ambush (especially Germany whose infantry have very strong AT) can destroy a tank worth several times as much. Harassment Attacks that serve mainly to hamper or disorganize the enemy, rather than directly damage him. Generally, this involves attacking supply lines with fast units such as light tanks or fighter aircraft, and retreating before the enemy has time to destroy the attacking units. Expanding Sending secondary HQ's to take over more resources and areas of the map. These secondary bases are often also used as forward bases to bring reinforcements quicker. Plane Swarm Due to the fact that AA guns can only target one unit at a time sending in all planes at once instead of in waves means that the enemy has less time to shoot them down. For example if you send 2 waves of 3 bombers they have say 10 seconds to hit them each time, so 20 seconds of firing. But 1 wave of 6 bombers means they only have 10 seconds of firing, so half the damage is done to your planes. This can be used to attack areas that have heavy AA defenses without exposing expensive planes to too much fire. If these planes are targeted on AA guns then it is sometimes possible to quickly secure air superiority. Behind The Lines Sending Paratroopers, infantry, tanks or a combination behind the lines can sometimes be a great idea to disrupt enemy supplies and reinforcements. Using fast attack tanks, you can do hit and runs on enemy supply units and light troops and be out of there in no time. Radio Silence is recommended so the enemy can't see where you will attack next. Also, erratic fighting, as in the troops all over the place, may seem stupid but is effective as the enemy won't know where you will attack next. Ninja Sending paratroopers to capture enemy supply posts or buildings. Good technique to displace supply lines, acquire positional advantage of near enemy HQ, or general harassment. The most effective way to achieve this, is to acquire a lot of resources, build an airport, (under radio silence and camo' nets ), and once you managed to have enough supplies, launch a very numerous attack of elite paratroopers in various forests, towns and even, the enemy HQ, so, the enemy will have to clear the threats, and by this way, ambush enemy units and capture all enemy production buildings, and outnumber them with their factories. Flyboy Using only air units to cut off supply lines, break weak defenses, harass major armies, defending and moving in the occasional para attack. While using this tactic, you must have several airports, and all air units type, bombers, fighter-bombers, recon planes and fighters, however, it is not too necessary to produce fighters as fighter-bombers can outgun them. However, as the minimal enemy unit closes to your airport, it can destroy ALL the planes parked there, resulting in a critical loss of units and supplies. Although flyboys are hard to kill, they've got a major flaw. Their airports can be easily destroyed by the Barrage tactic, don't try to bomb their airports; you'll only got your bombers or fighters shot down, because they've got an even major airforce. Flyboy Turtling The AI usually tries the Flyboy Turtling, it's where a player masses fighterbombers in his/her airspace, so, whenever a land unit nears the formation, the will get bombed and if enemy aircraft nears the formation, the superior number will shred the enemy. The best way to counter this is to target enemy supplies and use long-range artillery to shred their airports, after all airporst are taken out, send multiple decoys so the aircraft above the enemy base (they're still flying) will waste their ammo, and with no airport to rearm, you can send in your fighters and take down all the flying aircraft in the area. Robin Hood Heavily relying on units hidden in the woods (and towns) to ambush enemy units and attack their supply lines. This strategy combines harassment and turtling tactics. However, recon units can sniff out this type of attack, and infantry units will be quickly destroyed. Pincer Movement Two common types of pincer movements exist, a two-pronged (being most common) and a three-pronged attack. A two-pronged pincer movement is an attack tactic in which two separate formations strike at the enemy from separate sides. This can be used to split the bulk of the enemy's forces in two, for easier destruction, or just to lure them away. In a three-pronged pincer movement, three formations take part. Two of them strike the enemy's main concentration of troops from the right and the left. When the enemy's forces are struggling to hold their own, or when you forces are seemingly crumbling before you, your third prong (containing heavy units, such as medium and/or heavy tanks) forces its way right up the middle, smashing any resistance in a forceful assault. Radio silence is recommended for this third prong before it approaches, as when the enemy sees a large mass of your units coming closer, he will be quick to react with whatever is left. As soon as the third prong begins to destroy a large amount of enemy units, your first and second prongs can push harder to "herd" the enemy's troops into a killing zone. Dummying This strategy is a very simple one, but also effective. You can use the ruse Reverse Intel to do this for a small fee. This also works best with countries that can pump out infantry quickly. Build multiple platoons of infantry and activate the ruse in a sector. The enemy will now think that you are attacking him with heavy tanks (Because Heavy Tanks are the only ones that move at infantry speed). You can also do vice-versa with large units. The enemy will now be confused, thinking they have to face a battle on two fronts. Consequently, they will deploy their defences as such. If your enemy uses the Spy Plan ruse, you could use Radio silence. See Also *Gameplay Category:Gameplay